Star Wars #13 – July, 1978

Cover art by John Byrne

Star Wars #13 – July, 1978

It was announced a few days ago (by hollywoodreporter.com) that the seven-foot tall and seventy year-old actor, Peter Mayhew, would be reprising his role as Chewbacca in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII sequel. This is awesome news for fans of “the greatest space-fantasy film of all”, as Marvel described their early comic book adaptation of the movie.

Yes, a long time ago, before both Marvel and Lucasfilm were purchased by Disney, Marvel Comics took the very first crack at expanding the Star Wars universe; and even though the Marvel stories, written by comic legends such as Archie Goodwin and Roy Thomas, are pretty much discounted by the “official” expanded universe, there are some very fun, original and inventive adventures taking place between Star Wars #7 – #38 (with The Empire Strikes Back adaptation beginning in issue #39.)

To celebrate Mr. Mayhew’s return as any world’s most famous Wookiee, we’re showcasing one of Chewbacca’s early comic cover appearances, in Star Wars #13 (his first was in Star Wars #3), where there is a fun nod to the Episode IV scene in which C-3PO implores R2-D2 to “let the Wookiee win.”

In Archie Goodwin’s tale, “Day of the Dragon Lords”, Luke and the robots are stranded in the water covered Drexel System and forced to help repair Governor Quarg’s fleet of ships so that he can defeat the Dragon Lords and their colorful sea serpents. But when Han, Leia and Chewie crash land the Millennium Falcon on the planet, the Wookiee is thrown overboard and doesn’t much like getting wet.

The J.J. Abrams directed Star Wars: Episode VII is slated to be in theaters on December 18, 2015; but while you’re waiting, if you are interested in seeing Marvel’s early expansion of the Star Wars universe, you can pick up Dark Horse’s collection of the comics, Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago – Volume 1 TPB.